Chloe Malle's 'proud nepo baby' status seems to be preceding her merit as Vogue's new US editor

Her words, not ours

Fashion professionals and aficionados collectively held their breath earlier this year in June, as news broke of Anna Wintour, 75, stepping down as editor-in-chief of US Vogue. Now while this was immediately considered quite akin to the fall of an institution, the 75-year-old isn't really giving up her curated empire. Anna will stay on in Vogue as the Global Editorial Director and will also continue to serve as the Chief Content Officer at Condé Nast. This puts Anna in-charge of not just Vogue, but also Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour and more — a gig that honestly sounds befitting of her personal stature and legacy.

Chloe Malle's 'proud nepo baby' status precedes her merit as the new American Vogue editor(Photos: Instagram, X)

That being said, after the first shock of the news died down, the only and most obvious question ringing in everybody's head was who could possibly succeed the legacy put in place by her? Speculations ran wild for over 2 months, though now the position has a face and name to it. Anna's 37-year long reign over Vogue will be carried forward by Chloe Malle, the newly appointed head of editorial content of Vogue‘s U.S. edition. Now while it goes without saying that a position of this sort doesn't come easy, the noise of her nepo baby status — never mind that Chloe is 39 years old herself — has clearly drowned out any of her professional merit, at least when it comes to the first rush of public perceptions.

The late Louis Malle on the other hand, has 22 films, short and feature to his name in addition to 7 documentary films. Of this, Le Monde du silence (1956) won him the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, while documentary film Calcutta (1969) bagged him the Grand Prix at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Potentially his biggest success was 1987 film Goodbye, Children which won him the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and Academy, BAFTA, Cesar and EFA credits, many of which he bagged wins in as well.

Chloe Malle's father is the late Louis Malle

So we're clearly talking about a family of mammoths, with Chloe having without a doubt taken the baton ahead with her American Vogue editorship. And first things first, she isn't at all trying to tuck her family's legacy away or apologise for it. Terming herself a "proud nepo baby" in her interview with the New York Times, she shares, "There is no question that I have 100% benefited from the privilege I grew up in. It’s delusional to say otherwise. I will say, though, that it has always made me work much harder. It has been a goal for a lot of my life to prove that I’m more than Candice Bergen’s daughter, or someone who grew up in Beverly Hills".

Interestingly, Chloe has been involved with Vogue since 2011, first joining as a social editor. She turned a contributing editor between 2016 and 2023. Since 2023, she has held the position of editor at Vogue.com, also having co-hosted Vogue's The Run-Through podcast, since 2022.

The first edition under her is likely to come out next year.